Bradley Cooper Talks Past Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Bradley Cooper may have been more accustomed to the Hangover lifestyle than fans will ever know.

The American Hustle actor recently shared details about his personal life in the January 2014 issue of GQ Magazine. He discussed his ongoing battle with drug and alcohol abuse. Fortunately, the 38-year-old actor is finally on the path to recovery.

"If I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life," Cooper said.

Around 2005, Cooper was treading on extremely thin ice due to personal issues he was having at the time.

In a previous interview with Hollywood Reporter, he spoke of a terrible incident where he willfully bashed his head against concrete while at a party. The violent act resulted in hospitalization.

However, his bout started long before the 2005 incident. Cooper recounted his plight as a struggling actor over 10 years ago, which was around the time of his stint on the ABC drama series Alias.

After the premiere of the show in 2001, things went awry as his screen-time rapidly diminished in the second season. He revealed that both his personal and professional life were filled with contention.

Cooper even shared that he had come to the realization that he was on a downward spiral, admitting to thoughts of suicide.

"I would only work three days a week," Cooper said of his role as Will Tippin on the show. And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, 'Ugh,' and then next thing you know, I was like, 'I want to f---ing kill myself.'"

"I think work was getting f----d up," he admitted. "The one thing that I've learned in life is the best thing I can do is embrace who I am and then do that to the fullest extent, and then whatever happens, happens. The more steps I do to not do that, the farther I am away from fulfilling any potential I would have . . .Yes, of course it hindered the work."

Cooper accredited the substantial progress he's made in his personal and professional life to sobriety. "I was doing these movies, and I got to meet Sandra Bullock and meet these people and work with them," he says.

"And I'm sober, and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm actually myself. And I don't have to put on this air to be somebody else, and this person still wants to work with me? Oh, what the f--- is that about?’ I was rediscovering myself in this workplace, and it was wonderful."